The Mystery of the Scorpion

Posted by Christopher Eger Jul 31, 2007

Ed Offley, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer Military Reporter has just released a new book Scorpion Down in which he proposes that the USS Scorpion ((SSN-589) was sunk by a Soviet submarine at the height of the Cold War. He ties the event in with mysterious Soviet Naval activities in the Atlantic and the equally perplexing mystery of Soviet Golf II class submarine K-129 which sank off of Oahu only two weeks before the Scorpion went missing.

The Scorpion, a seven year old Skipjack class nuclear submarine, vanished under a cloud of mystery in 1968.

Mr Offley is not the first author to come out and state what he believed happened to the Scorpion. In the 1999 book Blind Mans Bluff, a trio of NYT reporters draw out the case for the Scorpion being destroyed one way or another by its arsenal of Mk-37 torpedoes. The Mk-37 torpedo had a nasty tendency to 'spin -up' and start on their own. Last year Stephen Johnson's book Silent Steel: The Mysterious Death of the Nuclear Attack Sub USS Scorpion would lead the reader to believe the star crossed sub was a victim of poor maintenance by a tired crew and rushed overhauls. The boat (submarines are called boats not ships) suffered from numerous mechanical issues after her overhaul. On her first patrol after a questionable overhaul she had several mechanical malfunctions including an electrical fire and a freon leak that resisted all attempts at correction. The boat had a tired crew and had seen several members leave during its last cruise. Another navy submarine, the USS Thresher (SSN-593) had been lost only five years previous when a pipe burst in a deep dive off New England.

The Scorpion was lost in over 10,000 feet of water where she remains today.

She still carries two nuclear armed torpedoes along with her final secret. I wonder which one has a longer half life.